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Monday, February 11, 2013

The are the blood of the pack, they make the heart of it beat. Pulsating with the wraith of Khorne in their veins they prowl the Imperium for their next kill. Armed to the teeth for all types of warfare these warriors of of the Blood God are ready to take on any and all enemies of Chaos. They are Grey Hunter or what they prefer to be called Blood Hunters.

In terms of modelling I attempted to imbue the essence of Khorne into each of them. Utilizing a wide variety of kits from Warhammer Fantasy to Warhammer 40k I was able to make each them an individual. Each and every one of them has a different face yet each of them are still a weapon of the Blood God. Looking closely at their great company shoulder pad (left) you will find the iconography of Khorne. While their right shoulder, captures that of their pack marking. To further develop each squads identity I used their back packs as a means to differentiate them from each other. Some have red dominate the packs while other squads have oxidized brass. In the end I can quickly tell what models belong to what squad thanks to this technique. Yet they all look like they belong to the same company or in this case the same wolf pack.

This squad is kitted out with two plasma guns and a power axe nothing more, nothing less. Each of these weapons allows me to engage a variety foes on the battle field through flexibility. The other members of the pack wield a variety of close combat weapons from maces, to axes, to swords. Each an instrument of death, each a slave to their master. They each also carry a bolter and a bolt pistol.

When it came to painting my Blood Hunters I wanted to create a unique paint scheme that would set them apart on the battle field. I wanted them to be chaotic in nature. I wanted them to throw away their past and embrace their future. Blues became red and golds became oxidized brass. The rich reds provided me with a direct link the Khorne himself. While the oxidized brass is that of the armour of Khrone himself. Weathered from the years of warfare and from the hate of battle itself their armour speaks that of death. Tempering the steel of their weapons and colour scheme I spilled but a sprinkle of ice blue on to them. Creating a stark contrast to that of the blood reds the blues balance my split-complementary colour scheme. The red may be the dominate colour but the yellow-greens and blue-greens provides the high contrast that I was seeking. The bonus to using such a palette is that I am not plagued by the strong tension of a straight up complementary scheme. Not wanting to tilt the balance of harmony against my favour I ensured that all other colours would be neutral in appearance. Choosing a muted grey for their skin I was able to achieve this while creating a sickly look their faces. The bases received the same treatment as the skin but the end result was that of an ash world.

3 comments:

These guys are really great, HOTPanda! You've managed to find a very effective recipe for the paintjob, with the stark contrasts really working in the models' favour. Some of those kitbashes are rather inspired as well!

One small nitpick, though: Why didn't you paint the Plasma coils on the Plasmaguns light blue, like the power axe. That would add a great spot colour to the weapons, making the models even more obvious as specialists. Plus a simple OSL effect in blue is very easy to achieve.

I thought the same thing when I was taking these pictures last night. I will be going back over the four plasma guns and painting their coils blue. As far as OSL unfortunately that is something beyond my painting right now.

No, it's not ;-) Seriously, mate, I thought the exact same thing until I tried it. Now I can safely say that a subtle OSL effect in blue is really very easy to do. Let me break it down for you:

1.)First of all, you'll need some sort of palette for this. An old piece of plastic will suffice, heck, you can even use an old newspaper if you're fast enough.

2.) Paint the whole coil area in a middle tone (personally, I am using my old GW Enchanted Blue).

3.) Add a bit of white to the colour and use it to slightly layer/drybrush the coils. It's not a hard drybrush in the strict sense of the word, but the ribbed structure of the coils will make it easy to pick out the raised areas in the lighter colour, while the recessed parts will remain darker. You should make sure the brush is not too wet for this to work.

4.) Thin down some of the colour (you'll need some of it for the next step, so don't use it all up) with water and use it almost like a (slightly heavier) wash on the area surrounding the coils to represent the glow emanating from the coils.

5.) Add yet more white to the mix and do a last, very light accent in the middle of the coils.

This is really easy to get right - so easy, in fact, that I am adding more and more plasma weapons to my models just to have an excuse to do the effect.

Here's what it will look like:

http://eternalhunt.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/lord-commissar-1.jpg

http://eternalhunt.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/kharn-3.jpg

And here's the same effect on something other than a Plasma weapon:

http://eternalhunt.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/traitor-guard-5.jpg

http://eternalhunt.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/basilisk-78.jpg

Of course we're not talking about GD level painting here. It's really easy to pull off, so just give it a try!